Game 005 Comment Thread

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Spaceman

Just to clarify, is the barrel roll affecting the turn we're about to send you, or the turn 9 we just worked out? I had expected it to affect turn 9 (don't know what QuailPilot thought). Don't mind if it affects my turn 10 orders, but I'll keep in mind I need to pre-order barrel rolls in the future then.

I say this because it doesn't look like my TR had been raised that past turn at all.

Um, yes, barrel roll affects turn 10. Sorry if this was unclear... It's a maneuver like an Immelman turn and is treated as such - with the only exception that a barrel roll allows you to execute your regular movement at the same time.

Spaceman

Looking at these games, I think you really, really need to add some way of visualising gunfire and such. It would be great to be able to watch a game turn-by-turn without the need to check this thread for information about what's actually going on out there.

You mean, like this? (It's in German, but I guess you'll figure out what to do - just hit the play button. And "Verfehlt" means of course "Missed.")

Yes, I've done it before, and the late versions of these replays actually looked more refined (complete with engine flare, better explosions and even professional sound effects) than the one you see here. The only problem was: It took a whole lot of my time to do this, because I'm not good enough in coding to generate such a replay automatically. I had to create all those animations by hand...
(And as you can see when looking at those ship bitmaps, I also suck at graphics. )

To cut it short: I totally agree with you, Quarto. It isn't even that difficult to code, but still too difficult for me. I tried to learn Java to get things done myself, but I just don't have enough free time to do it.

Agreed, I like the clear cut phases better as well. However, I always thought they're slowing the whole process down - sending orders does take time, and it's dull to for a player who can't do anything in a turn to wait for all other players sending in their combat and end phase orders. Even now, with the "all-in-one" concept, some turns take 2-3 days until everyone sends their orders in.
It makes sense for the tabletop version, though, and definitely for a computer-hosted game as well.

One word about that replay from my former "Fleet Commander" game: The game turns themselves looked a lot like WCTO Scenario 2, but even more detailed - each and every player got their own turn sent to them, since I had different radar ranges (to scan enemy ships), there were in-game radio messages, and I've written a JavaScript function to compute all the "Target Rolls" (they were just attack rolls back then) for every ship based on speed, distance, ECM and what not. It was a fun game, but it got too complex in the end - it took me two hours to compile a new game turn, complete with the added replay for everyone.
Eventually I had to give up on it - which is a shame, since I still have all the original material I've written for that game and universe, including star charts, planetary history, lots and lots of detailed ship components...

Spaceman

Uh oh... QuailPilot turned 1 right, which I somehow managed to forget in turn 10. It's right there in his orders and my turn summary, but the final position of his Sabre wasn't correct. It is now, though, so check again and hit F5 to refresh if necessary. (This is mainly interesting for Iceblade, I guess...)

Note that Avacar is away right now. I'll wait until you all turned in your orders for turn 14 - if he's not back until then, he ordered me to afterburn his fighter off the map in order to not stall the game.

I'll be away until Monday as well - business trip to Shakespeare's birthplace in the UK.

Vice Admiral

Well, I guess I'll send in some orders and jump back into the game, since you guys only pulled off 1 turn in 3 weeks.

I never had a chance to write a message here, but I was in fact gone on my honeymoon as I got married. I had hoped I would die/win game 5 before that occured when we started it back in April/May, but it has stretched on longer than expected.

Anyway, I don't know what the status on the rest of you guys is, but I'm willing and ready to finish this.